Church of La Vera Cruz in Segovia, Spain (Church of the True Cross)

Historic 13th-century Catholic church with a unique 12-sided exterior built by the Knights Templar.

Saladin's Castle

Saladin castle is located in Western Syria, 30 km east of the city of Latakia. Formerly known as Castle of Saône, it has been given the title “Saladin’s castle” (Qal’at Salah El-Din) by the Syrian Interior Minister in 1957 in reference to its most famous owner: Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. The citadel was designated as world heritage site by UNESCO in 2006.

(Click on the map to read pop-up facts about Saladin, while you zoom in and roam around the castle model.)

The fortress was built around 1229 by Al-Aziz 'Uthman, the younger son of Saladin, to preempt an attack on Damascus by the armies of the Sixth Crusade. It was named Qal'at al-Subeiba, "Castle of the Large Cliff" in Arabic.

At the end of the 13th century, following the Muslim conquest of the port city of Acre (Akko) and the end of Crusader rule in the Holy Land, the fortress lost its strategic value and fell into disrepair.

The Druze,  who came to the region during the 1860 conflict between themselves and the Maronites, began calling it Qal'at Namrud (Nimrod's Castle).

(Click on the map to read pop-up facts about engravings found at the fort, while you zoom in and roam around the model.)